Pearl

My husband and I watched Pearl the other night and found it beautiful to watch, even though the subject matter was darker than I expected. The first thought we had after watching the film was .... "poetry in motion." There was a touch of metaphysics in a graveyard scene near the end that brought in a few tears, along with a skosh of the spiritual and the unknown knowingness that there is a thread in life that is unseen, but often felt. Moments at those intersections help to recalibrate difficult, sometimes untenable emotions. We thought the director did a damn good job of dealing with trauma and tragedy in a unique way. We enjoy films that encourage us to look between the lines at what isn't being said.... Pearl did that for us. The light hand of music placed thoughtfully throughout was a beautiful choice. And Patti Scialfa's voice is angelic. We're embarrassed to say we had never heard its stand alone unique beauty before. The music and the lyrics touched us deeply. Good performances from the cast. Solid direction from the director.

The acting is so bad it's cringy. It's like amateur people trying to act for the 1st time. Story is cliche. Overall waste of time.

Wow. The acting in this is so bad it is cringeworthy throughout.

Hint to filmmakers: Let models be models, but do not cast people with zero talent at acting for acting jobs.

BTW, the positive reviews here are from single use accounts. That is shilly.

The movie never really kicked into gear, as the entire story is quite dull. The characters were initially not introduced beyond the surface and as the movie progressed there were some attempts to further develop these characters. Alas, this did not only take way too long, but were underwhelming flat. The acting was so plain - the characters never shed a tear... Also, can they not at least try to look like they are playing the piano?

The cinematography was incompetent, as the camera crew could be seen throughout the movie. The directing was odd too, with constant flashbacks repeatedly interrupting the flow of the movie - even though it was an attempt to convey a characters emotions.

The movie tried time and time again to introduce a new conflict to not lose interest in the script - and it was a failure every single time, since they never influenced the story or the characters in anyway...

The ending was a letdown, and not because of the ending, but the build up. A simple run-through of the script and it would be too apparent that the movie focused on the wrong relationship between the characters...

Simple plotline and the acting that never touches the heart.